Grave found of man who bankrolled Confederates in American civil war

Tom Sebrell, an American academic, has rediscovered the lost grave of
Charles Prioleau in Kensal Green cemetery, London. Photograph: Martin
Godwin.

The grave of a man who bankrolled the Confederate side in the American
civil war, and ended up costing the British government £3.3m in
compensation to the victorious north, has been tracked down in a patch
of brambles in a London cemetery.

Charles Kuhn Prioleau, a cotton merchant born in Charleston, South
Carolina, was based in Liverpool during the war, from 1861 to 1865. He
disappeared from history in a bonfire of company records and
correspondence after his firm went bankrupt, having sent supplies,
funds, and blockade-busting ships to the Confederates.

But his mortal remains have now been traced to Kensal Green cemetery
by a US academic who is gradually unearthing the almost forgotten
story of Confederate support in England, which takes in the highest
ranks of British politics and society.